president obama has a 2.8% lead in the real clear politics average of the polls out there. ohio has, of course, 18 electoral votes, if you don't know that by now, you have not been paying attention. more than a million have already voted in ohio, according to what we are learning. we go live to columbus. mike, what you can report from there? good morning. >> reporter: good morning. ojaioans have been voting early and the returns show that president obama does have a lead here in ohio. the romney camp says they are not concerned, it is mauler than the lead over john mccain four years ago, they believe republicans will show up in greater numbers on election day and close that gap. you have both sides going into the home stretch, energized and optimistic about ohio. the personal contact, the door-knocking, the micro-targeting of vote rez, unlike anything seen in a previous campaign. the goal, to get out the vote. make sure no one from your base stays home or fails to cast a ballot on election day. there is the effort to persuade the handful of undecided voters. >> we are looki